Hard Meat - The Space Between: The Recordings 1969-1970 (2022)

• NEW REMASTERED 3CD CLAMSHELL BOXED SET FEATURING ALL THE RECORDINGS BY PROGRESSIVE ROCK BAND HARD MEAT.

• FEATURING THE ALBUMS ‘HARD MEAT’, ‘THROUGH A WINDOW’ AND AN UNRELEASED ALBUM FROM 1969. ALL REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL WARNER BROTHERS AND SESSION MASTER TAPES FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE ON CD.

• WITH AN ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET FEATURING AN ESSAY AND INTERVIEWS.

In the late 1960s with the first flowering of the progressive rock and heavy rock movements, bands of both disciplines – and many straddling the two – began sprouting like mushrooms, some flourishing for decades and others a mere fleeting presence in rock’s back pages. One of the latter examples were the excellent Hard Meat, a progressive rock trio who recorded an unissued album intended for release on Island Records in 1969 and released two albums in 1970 for Warner Brothers.

Featuring brothers Mick Dolan (guitars, vocals), Steve Dolan (bass, vocals) and Mick Carless (drums), Hard Meat came together in late 1968 and came to the attention of producer Sandy Roberton who in turn brought the band to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. The band issued a single ‘Rain’ (an excellent cover of The Beatles’ classic song) b/w ‘Burning Up Years’ on the label and subsequently recorded an album intended for release on Island. However, for various reasons, the band were dropped from Island’s roster and the excellent recordings failed to gain a release. In 1970 Hard Meat signed with the UK division of Warner Brothers and released their self-titled debut album soon after.

The album and the band’s live performances in the UK and the USA (where they opened for acts such as The Flying Burrito Brothers) attracted enough critical praise and attention for a follow up album, the excellent ‘Through A Window’ to be released by Warner at the end of 1970.
However, by the beginning of 1971 the band broke up leaving a legacy of two fine, but sadly commercially unsuccessful albums which would later surface on CD many years later as poor- quality bootlegs as the band’s music was gradually rediscovered.